Systems, methods, and apparatuses for seeding community sidechains with consent written onto a blockchain interfaced with a cloud based computing environment

Abstract

Systems, methods, and apparatuses for implementing super community and community sidechains with consent management for distributed ledger technologies in a cloud based computing environment are described herein. For example, according to one embodiment there is a system having at least a processor and a memory therein executing within a host organization and having therein: means for operating a blockchain interface to a blockchain on behalf of a plurality of tenants of the host organization, wherein each of the plurality of tenants are participating nodes with the blockchain; means for receiving a login request from a user device, the login request requesting access to a user profile associated with a first one of the plurality of tenants; means for authenticating the user device and retrieving a user profile from the blockchain based on the authentication of the user device, wherein the user profile is stored as a blockchain asset within the blockchain with a first portion of the user profile comprising non-protected data accessible to all participating nodes on the blockchain and with a second portion of the user profile comprising protected data accessible only to participating nodes having user consent; means for prompting the user device to grant user consent to share the protected data with a second one of the plurality of tenants; and means for sharing the protected data with the second one of the plurality of tenants by permitting access to the protected data within the blockchain asset by the second tenant's participating node. Other related embodiments are disclosed.

What is claimed is: 
     
       1. A method, performed by a system of a host organization, the system having at least a processor and a memory therein, wherein the method comprises:
 operating a blockchain interface to a private blockchain on behalf of a plurality of tenants of the host organization, wherein each of the plurality of tenants operate as participating nodes with the private blockchain; 
 granting the plurality of tenants of the host organization access to the private blockchain upon successful authentication with the host organization, wherein public access to the private blockchain is restricted by the host organization; 
 wherein the private blockchain includes a plurality of blocks including at least an initial genesis block and a plurality of standard blocks, wherein each of the blocks are linked together via hash pointers; 
 forming a community sidechain having a plurality of sidechain blocks and linking the community sidechain with the private blockchain via a hash linker from the community sidechain to a fork block on the private blockchain; 
 designating a subset of the participating nodes of the host organization as community member nodes of the community sidechain; 
 obtaining consent from each of the community member nodes to share data accessible from within the community sidechain with other member nodes of the community sidechain; 
 writing the consent into the private blockchain; and 
 sharing data between two or more of the community member nodes of the community sidechain based on the consent granted by each of the community member nodes. 
 
     
     
       2. The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 enforcing access rights to the community sidechain by requiring any participating nodes of the host organization to traverse a consent management layer controlling read and write access to information accessible only to community member nodes of the community sidechain. 
 
     
     
       3. The method of  claim 1 , wherein the plurality of tenants operating as participating nodes with the private blockchain cannot access any data stored within the community sidechain until the following conditions are met:
 (i) the respective tenant organization's participating node joins the community sidechain as a community member node of the community side chain; 
 (ii) the respective tenant organization grants consent to share data accessible from within the community sidechain with the other member nodes of the community sidechain; and 
 (iii) the respective tenant organization's granted consent is written to the private blockchain. 
 
     
     
       4. The method of  claim 1 , wherein the community sidechain is seeded with the consent obtained from the member nodes of the community sidechain after the consent is written into the private blockchain. 
     
     
       5. The method of  claim 1 , wherein protected data is stored outside of the community sidechain and is accessible to the participating nodes via a reference between sidechain blocks which permits retrieval of the protected data via the consent management layer. 
     
     
       6. The method of  claim 1 , wherein the protected data is written into the payload of the sidechain blocks, wherein members nodes of the community sidechain will have access to the protected data without having to access the private blockchain. 
     
     
       7. The method of  claim 1 , wherein the community sidechain forms and operates independently of the private blockchain, so as long as a blockchain consent manager selects which participating nodes are member nodes of the community sidechain and the protected data that the member nodes have access to. 
     
     
       8. The method of  claim 1 , wherein participating nodes of the host organization that are not member nodes of the community sidechain cannot access or share the protected data. 
     
     
       9. The method of  claim 1 , wherein users of the host organization create user specific community sidechains by creating a user profile with a participating website and granting consent to other participating nodes of the host organization to permit sharing of the user's protected information without access to the user specific sidechain before being granted consent to access the user specific sidechain. 
     
     
       10. The method of  claim 9 , wherein the user creates a different user profile for each different type of access granted by the user to the other participating nodes. 
     
     
       11. The method of  claim 9 , wherein users grant consent to exchange protected data with other independently operated blockchains. 
     
     
       12. The method of  claim 1 , wherein the community sidechain shares medical information for one or more users between a hospital and an insurance provider. 
     
     
       13. The method of  claim 1 , wherein the private blockchain continues after the creation of the community sidechain via additional standard blocks which follow the fork block on the private blockchain. 
     
     
       14. Non-transitory computer-readable storage media having instructions stored thereupon that, when executed by a processor of a system having at least a processor and a memory therein, the instructions cause the system to perform operations comprising:
 operating a blockchain interface to a private blockchain on behalf of a plurality of tenants of the host organization, wherein each of the plurality of tenants operate as participating nodes with the private blockchain; 
 granting the plurality of tenants of the host organization access to the private blockchain upon successful authentication with the host organization, wherein public access to the private blockchain is restricted by the host organization; 
 wherein the private blockchain includes a plurality of blocks including at least an initial genesis block and a plurality of standard blocks, wherein each of the blocks are linked together via hash pointers; 
 forming a community sidechain having a plurality of sidechain blocks and linking the community sidechain with the private blockchain via a hash linker from the community sidechain to a fork block on the private blockchain; 
 designating a subset of the participating nodes of the host organization as community member nodes of the community sidechain; 
 obtaining consent from each of the community member nodes to share data accessible from within the community sidechain with other member nodes of the community sidechain; 
 writing the consent into the private blockchain; and 
 sharing data between two or more of the community member nodes of the community sidechain based on the consent granted by each of the community member nodes. 
 
     
     
       15. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of  claim 14 , wherein the instructions when executed by the processor cause the system to perform operations further including:
 enforcing access rights to the community sidechain by requiring any participating nodes of the host organization to traverse a consent management layer controlling read and write access to information accessible only to community member nodes of the community sidechain. 
 
     
     
       16. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of  claim 14 , wherein the plurality of tenants operating as participating nodes with the private blockchain cannot access any data stored within the community sidechain until the following conditions are met:
 (i) the respective tenant organization's participating node joins the community sidechain as a community member node of the community side chain; 
 (ii) the respective tenant organization grants consent to share data accessible from within the community sidechain with the other member nodes of the community sidechain; and 
 (iii) the respective tenant organization's granted consent is written to the private blockchain. 
 
     
     
       17. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of  claim 14 , wherein the community sidechain is seeded with the consent obtained from the member nodes of the community sidechain after the consent is written into the private blockchain. 
     
     
       18. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of  claim 14 , wherein protected data is stored outside of the community sidechain and is accessible to the participating nodes via a reference between sidechain blocks which permits retrieval of the protected data via the consent management layer. 
     
     
       19. A system to execute at a host organization, wherein the system comprises:
 a memory to store instructions; 
 a processor to execute instructions; 
 wherein the processor is to execute a blockchain interface to a blockchain on behalf of a plurality of tenants of the host organization, wherein each one of the plurality of tenants operate as one of a plurality of participating nodes on the blockchain having access to the blockchain; and 
 wherein the system is configurable to execute instructions via the processor to perform further operations including: 
 operating a blockchain interface to a private blockchain on behalf of a plurality of tenants of the host organization, wherein each of the plurality of tenants operate as participating nodes with the private blockchain; 
 granting the plurality of tenants of the host organization access to the private blockchain upon successful authentication with the host organization, wherein public access to the private blockchain is restricted by the host organization; 
 wherein the private blockchain includes a plurality of blocks including at least an initial genesis block and a plurality of standard blocks, wherein each of the blocks are linked together via hash pointers; 
 forming a community sidechain having a plurality of sidechain blocks and linking the community sidechain with the private blockchain via a hash linker from the community sidechain to a fork block on the private blockchain; 
 designating a subset of the participating nodes of the host organization as community member nodes of the community sidechain; 
 obtaining consent from each of the community member nodes to share data accessible from within the community sidechain with other member nodes of the community sidechain; 
 writing the consent into the private blockchain; and 
 sharing data between two or more of the community member nodes of the community sidechain based on the consent granted by each of the community member nodes. 
 
     
     
       20. The system of  claim 18 , wherein the system is configurable to perform operations further including:
 enforcing access rights to the community sidechain by requiring any participating nodes of the host organization to traverse a consent management layer controlling read and write access to information accessible only to community member nodes of the community sidechain.